Archive for the ‘appstore’ Category

We’ve heard a lot that the concept of AppStore is somewhat crippled. Yes, the easiness and usability top any other concepts but its limitation can backfire developers and users.

In this post, I’ll argue that users should only buy apps from trusted developers. Why? Because with untrusted developers, the holes of apps versioning on AppStore are easy to be exploited.

First,

Imagine you buy a version one of an app that functions correctly. No ads, no bugs. It works wonderfully, and it get a 5-star ratings from thousands of people. And man…, the price is so cheap, not more that a US dollar.

And then comes the new version. It may introduced an ad, or even worse a bug, or a incompatibility with your old device. Or the worse of all, it may remove a feature you needed and put the feature in Pro version. Once you decide to update the application, you are left alone, because there is no (legal) way you can get the old version of the app.

Second,

Imagine you buy an app version one. It is released with bugs. You can’t do nothing because you can’t return the app.

Before buying the app, you can’t try the app, except for some apps that come from trusted developers (via in-app purchase mechanism). In other case, your best chance is to read the review and to check the website. Good if they have a video of the app. Bad if the website is even crippled.

So you are left with an unused app. The chance for you is only to wait for the developer to update the app.

Third,

As second scenario, developers have no duty to update the app in case of bugs or OS upgrade. No duty. That’s right, you may have new OS on your phone but if the apps are not updated, big chance that the app is not 100% compatible with the OS. And I repeat here one more time, you can’t go back to the previous version.

Fourth,

If the developer decides to update an app, he can choose to name it app 2. In that case, old customers will have to buy the app one more time. If it is a major upgrade, user may be able to accept that. But even in this case, no way for the developers to respect the old customers by giving discount, even if he wants to. The best you can get is from in-app purchase. I doubt many developers will opt for this option.

So what can we deduce from that? Buy your application only from trusted developers. Developers that are known to support the customers in the past. For the others, if you still decide to buy the app… just be prepared to not get the app you always wanted.

And for Apple, I do hope they can do something to avoid problems I mentioned above. If not, you bet that jailbreak will found its way to the mainstream.

Just realized this a moment ago… Normally an app that is sold in US for 0.99 US$ is sold for 0.79 €. In normal situation, this means the app will be cheaper on US, but since Euro’s value is decreasing… now the app is cheaper on Euro.